Sunday, January 22, 2017

Today 22nd Jan
2017 is a tough and demanding day for the kainkaryabarars of Thiruvallikkeni –
the sripadhamthangigal, Battar, Adhyapakas, various others engaged in doing
service to Emperuman – for it is a long journey crisscrossing the city, on the
day much was happening at Marina beach.

Singara Chennai has rivers
- Adyar and Coovum flowing through. River Adyaru
starts from Malaipattu tank near Manimangalam village in Sriperumbudur
Taluk at about 15 kilometres (9 mi) west of Tambaram. It starts to appear as a stream only from
the point where water from Chembarambakkam lake joins the river. It flows
through Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Chennai district for about 42.5 kilometres
(26.4 mi) before joining the Bay of Bengal in Adyar, Chennai. Here
it forms an estuary, which extends from the Adyar Bridge to the sandbar at the
edge of the sea, with some small islets in-between. The British used to call it
Chengalpattu river as it came from the direction of Chengalpattu.

Lakhs of Chennaites cut
across the river using the Thiru Vi Ka Bridge and Maraimalai Adigal bridge !
–wonder where they are ? – near Malar Hospital is the former and at Saidapet is
the latter. The earliest causeway across
the river was then known as Marmalong Bridge, originally constructed by the
Armenian merchant Coja Petrus Uscan in 1728 at the cost of Rs. one lakh. Over
the years it became weak and was
replaced by a new one in 1966, then named after Maraimalai Adigal.

Nearer Guindy is
Industrial estate and on the banks of the river Adyaru, is Ekkadu. Every year on a day, whence there are no
other regular Uthsavams, on a Sunday, Sri Parthasarathi Perumal leaves on a
sojourn early in the morning, has many mandagpadis on the way – has
Thirumanjanam at Ekkattuthangal in a land donated to Him many decades ago.